mardi 25 septembre 2012

Let's make the mall interactive

Mall in a Parisian suburb. September 2012.

Showcasing cars at malls. Some days, lots of people pass by the cars, look at them, other days less. Depending on the weather, on the period of the year, the period of the day... Who knows?

What is the car's "audience"?
Do we know how many people had an Opportunity To See the car (OTS)? Do we know if people came back to look at the car again, and if so, how many times? The same day or the next week? Deduplicated audiences are not easy to measure.

Does the audience matter?
Of course: it matters to the brand and it matters to the mall. Both not only need to know the number of people or the frequency of their visits (these numbers are important for branding, for setting the price for advertising space); they especially want to reach some of these shoppers again, to retarget them on a smartphone.

The mall could build a panel, launch a loyalty card (using smartphones)... Those interested in the car would receive a message on their smartphone: "Would you like to know more about the car?", "What about a test run? If so, send us a mail, a text; let's make an appointment".... There must be a solution for interactivity: apps, QR codes, etc. Such marketing tools could provide rich data and useful analytics.
Passers-by interested in the car would probably like to know more about it, but they do not have the time to stop or to ask a vendor (not even to mention that sometimes there is no one to talk to). They might be busy, shy, their kids can't wait. Maybe the mall is just too crowded! If they could just "like" the car with Facebook, twit about it, share a picture with Instagram or Pinterest... Without interactivity, these passers-by are lost to the brand and to the local car dealers.

Conclusion
Such an operation - the equivalent of an open house - deserves the red carpet treatment. This is an extremely important advertising opportunity... And yet, neither the car manufacturer nor the mall can know exactly how successful it is.  Of course, there are so-called "intercept" surveys. How representative are the samples? What about those people who refuse to be intercepted?
It is about time all this business thinks digital!
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4 commentaires:

Anonyme a dit…

This would effectively be a good way of measuring the target size. But, isn't there a chance that passers-by feel overwelmed or stalked by the brand?
Personnaly, I would be a bit scared.
Our way of thinking will probably evolve quickly and this might become a ubiquitous way of talking to consumers. So, why not...
@VeroCormierChet

@RomainSalzman a dit…

Avant de savoir comment "retarget" le consommateur qui a simplement vu le véhicule dans un centre commercial, il m'apparait comme important de savoir si le consommateur a effectivement envie d'être "retargeté".

Je comprends la remarque de véronique et je la partage. A-t-on envie de recevoir un SMS d'une marque simplement du fait que nous ayons vu un de ses véhicules ?

Une citation court chez "Buzzman": si vous débarquez chez quelqu'un sans avoir été invité, vous avez intérêt à offrir une bonne bouteille de champagne.

Autrement dit: si une marque veut débarquer dans la sphère de quelqu'un (SMS, facebook ou autre) avec comme seule motif d'approche "on s'est croisé dans le centre commercial", lui proposer simplement d'en savoir plus sur la voiture peut sembler un peu léger.

Deux possibilités donc:

- soit effectivement retargeter, mais en proposant un vrai contenu

- soit permettre au consommateur de manifester son intérêt pour le véhicule de la manière la plus simple possible, avant de commencer la conversation et de proposer des informations supplémentaires

Manel BH a dit…

Je suis d'accord avec Romain et Véronique concernant la dimension "envahissante" du retargeting.

D'ailleurs, l'achat d'une voiture étant un des achats les plus engageants, est-ce qu'un sms va vraiment pouvoir changer la donne?

Je suis d'accord avec Romain quant à l'idée de proposer un contenu supplémentaire, les critiques des spécialistes concernant le véhicule, le making off de la campagne, la possibilité de télécharger gratuitement la musique de la campagne pub (souvent bien choisies...)

Unknown a dit…

Showcasing a cars in malls is very expensive. As the text explains, even if the OTS is high it doesn't mean that people are engaged. As we all know, people usually don't have time to look at the car and to demand further informations in the malls. It's due to the fact that they re busy with other things : shopping, children, lack of time,...
Technology is the solution to make the mall interactive and to encourage people to get more informations about the car that may have caught there attention. Social networking and QR codes are a solution. Furthermore, Andrew Lippman, director of the Viral Spaces research group at the MIT Media Laband and his graduate student Grace Woo have invented video response VR codes, designed for digital displays, which transmit data through light. VR codes are imperceptible to humans, but are picked up instantly by smartphone cameras, and allow all kinds of data to be pulled from any video display.
VR codes can be the smartcode that transmits data to digital displays through light and make people have more informations about the car characteristics instantly.
To know more about this genius invention, i invite you to have a look at this articles :
"QR to VR : the smartcode rebooted" http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/11/start/qr-to-vr-the-smartcode-rebooted

And to see this video that shows how the concept works :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aZuLnoPbhz0